Despite the odds against them from an embarrassing meet-awkward at a mutual friend’s Halloween party, Carter and Evie immediately hit it off. Even the realization that they’re both high-powered agents at competing firms in Hollywood isn’t enough to squash the fire.

But when their two agencies merge—causing the pair to vie for the same position—all bets are off. What could have been a beautiful, blossoming romance turns into an all-out war of sabotage. Carter and Evie are both thirtysomething professionals—so why can’t they act like it?

Can Carter stop trying to please everyone and see how their mutual boss is really playing the game? Can Evie put aside her competitive nature long enough to figure out what she really wants in life? Can their actor clients just be something close to human? Whether these two Hollywood love/hatebirds get the storybook Hollywood ending or just a dramedy of epic proportions, you will get to enjoy Christina Lauren’s heartfelt, raucous, and hilarious romance style at its finest.

R E V I E W

I’m going to keep my review for Dating You, Hating You super short. Purely because I don’t actually have a lot to say on this particular Christina Lauren book. I was kindly recommended this by Chloe’s World. I was pretty excited to jump into it because both Chloe and I have a very similar taste in romance. Dating You, Hating You was definitely a cute and funny read. I would definitely compare it to The Hating Game by Sally Thorne in terms of the banter that occurs throughout the book. My biggest problem with this book though was that it just fell a bit flat for me. I’ll get into this later, but there was just a missing spark that didn’t allow me to completely fall in love with the characters. I think this could be because it was the first standalone written by the authors, which didn’t allow their voices to carry through as successfully as it has in most recent books.

Dating You, Hating You follows both Evie and Carter. Through dual perspective, we get to know the ins and outs of being an agent in Hollywood. The pair meets at a friends party in which they end up in matching Harry Potter costumes (dorky adorable). They hit it off and are both delighted at the idea of meeting up again, however, this quickly falls through due to a merge between Evie and Carter’s companies which leaves the pair in a competition for the same position. This ensures pranks as the pair tries to combat the other for the position. There is also the inclusion of workplace sexism and the ways to deal with it, which is something I really enjoyed as someone who will be entering a business workforce in coming years.

Time to jump into what I did and like about Dating You, Hating You so I can keep this a short review like I promised.

what I liked

✗ HUMOUR IS STELLAR

Dating You, Hating You by Christina Lauren is honestly so funny. Evie and Carter play a series of pranks on each other as they both try to one up the other for the position. They are honestly so bloody hilarious. I was staring at my kindle and giggling uncontrollably during the parts. This is seriously such a witty and sexy novel and I admire the authors for this.

✗ CHARACTERS HAVE GREAT CHEMISTRY

As I said earlier this book is lacking something but it is definitely not the chemistry between Evie and Carter. I feel that it is created organically throughout the novel. It’s definitely not an enemy to lovers book, more of an attraction to resistance to lovers romance.

✗ FRIENDSHIPS ARE HEALTHY!!!

I feel I don’t need to extend on this point overly. The friendships for both Evie and Carter throughout this book are incredibly healthy. I love a good healthy friendship with characters and I feel as if Dating You, Hating You gave me that perfectly.

✗ SEXISM IN WORKPLACE IS DEALT WITH WELL

I mentioned this earlier but I really feel as if the sexism in the workplace is dealt with well throughout this book. At times I was getting annoyed with the way things were being handled but it really came into a full circle that, for me, bumped the book up a star.

what I didn’t like

✗ WAS OVERALL A LIL LACKLUSTRE

This story was overall missing something. I can’t even put my finger on it. It could be because it was really character driven? It could be because the author’s voices weren’t singing together perfectly? I’m not exactly sure. I was a bit sad by this because I really did want to love this book but it was missing the spark. It was a good story but just needed some oomph to really push it over the line.

Overall, Dating You, Hating You by Christina Lauren was a book I did enjoy. It was fun and sexy, while also simultaneously boring me to tears. I honestly am still struggling on how to rate this book and I don’t think I even came close to describing how I felt reading it in this review. Honestly, I’m so over the place right now I doubt anyone has even read this far. Dating You, Hating You is ultimately a fun story that should be read quickly and not taken too seriously. Don’t go in with too many high hopes I say!